Struck Dumb
by Alandra-Noir
Summary: Humorous drabble. Tony 'n Pepper.


Hey, lookit that. ANOTHER ONE. These are fun to write. D:

Marvel owns Tony. And Pepper. I wish I did. D:

**Struck Dumb**

"Miss Potts, Mr. Stark wishes to see you in the garage." A smarmy British voice announced quietly.

Pepper looked at the small window that had just popped up on her laptop screen. The words Jarvis had just spoken were sitting there as text, and her response was recorded as well. "What's he need?"

"He didn't say. According to him, you weren't answering his calls."

"He hasn't called me…" Pepper pulled out her phone and checked for missed calls. Nope. Nothing.

"He seems to think repeatedly saying your name aloud constitutes as calling. He finally had mind to alert you through me. Mr. Stark seems rather insistent you go down." He paused, and then added, "Right away."

Pepper gave a sigh and moved her laptop to the side, pushing herself onto her feet. Whatever it was he needed shouldn't have been that important. Certainly it was nothing as pressing as those contracts that needed to be filled out and read-over. Tony sure wasn't going to do it, so the job fell to her. "Why didn't he just use the comm?"

Jarvis' computer voice just made a very amused sound and said, "You'll see. I'll let Mr. Stark know you're on your way."

_Click click click clickclickclick. _Pepper's heels echoed as she descended the stairs, peeking through the recently repaired glass wall that separated the garage from the rest of the house. She didn't see her boss, and frowned as she typed in the pass-code. 1-0-6. With a faint '_fshhhhh!' _the door opened up and she stepped through, trying to figure out where Tony was. He wasn't at his desk… And his workbench-

"Pepper? PEPPER! I hear you! Those heels never lie! Come here!" His voice echoed from deeper within the workshop, and he sounded rather panicked. That is, she was pretty sure it was panic. Tony's voice was particularly muffled, and it was difficult to tell.

"Tony? What's the matter? Where are you?" She called out, suddenly realizing her heart was beating a bit too fast. Even if there was no reason for it to. He'd said he was just down in the garage, working on one of his cars. The engine needed to be looked at. She knew he knew what he was doing… But then again, the suspicious lack of too-loud rock and familiar sound of a ratchet was enough to set Pepper on edge.

"I'm on the launch pad… Something went wrong." There was the sound of metal crashing to the floor and a muttered string of curses. "Ow."

This time, Pepper threw caution to the wind and half-jogged to where Tony had said he was, immediately running to her boss's side. He had half of his armor on (the helmet was why his voice had been so muffled) and seemed to be covered in a strange, white, powdery –"…Tony?"

"Pepper! Get down!" He shouted, reaching up to snatch her arm and pull her to the ground. The moment he did, a blast from a fire extinguisher came from seemingly nowhere, right where Pepper had been. She gave a surprised shout and was pulled into Tony's armored arms, covering her head with her hands.

"Tony! What the hell—"

"Dummy's having a bad day." Tony's tone was light, almost amused. Seeing his chance, he climbed to his feet, which only had one boot on, and _tap-clunk-tap-clunk-tapped _his way around the extinguisher-shooting, too-helpful robot, Pepper clutched tightly in his arms. One hand was missing his glove, and his fingers curled tightly into her shirt. "I knew I shouldn't have given him that job. He gets too into it…"

Unnerved, Pepper wrapped her arms around Tony's neck as he stumbled across the garage, cursing when the robot he'd built all those years ago decided to try and follow. "Tony, why's it going off in the first place? And for that matter," she frowned and knocked on his helmet, "Why did you need me?"

Ducking behind one of the cars, Tony lightly sat Pepper down and peered around the hood, quickly darting back down when it looked like Dummy had spotted him. "Well, half the suit's offline… Up until, hang on," he paused, and with a hand, flicked the little switch on his helmet that lifted the faceplate off. Much like the rest of the suit, his face had a nice amount of the white powdery substance on it, and he offered a grin. "Until you came down, I was trying to reboot systems. I couldn't remotely connect to the comm system, and you know the phone service is crap down here. Jarvis was nice enough to call you for me."

"You're welcome sir," Jarvis put in lightly.

"But what am I supposed to do?" Pepper was very rapidly getting annoyed. Tony could tell – her freckles always seemed to stand out when she was angry, and there was a certain way she pursed her lips that made Tony smile – an action that always got him in more trouble than was necessary when she got that way.

That smile was there now. "Well, see… I just came in from a test flight… Turns out I'd burned things a bit too hot. Stopping was hard enough, but the moment that damn robot detected that heat source, it, well, started doing its duty. I've got one boot so mucked up I'll probably have to build a new one. It'd be faster than trying to clean it out…" There was a faint whirring sound as Dummy slowly rolled by, extinguisher waving from side to side, as if trying to sniff out the prey it had just lost.

"Mr. Stark, you'd best answer my question, or I'm walking out right now." Her voice was sharp, green eyes focused on the current mess of her grinning boss. "Why was I needed down here?"

"Well, if you can distract him…" He worked on removing his other glove.

"No. _No._" Pepper started climbing to her feet, but was yanked down again by Tony. "TONY STARK."

Tony grinned wider. "Yeah, that's what they all say. About that loud too."

There was a very loud _CLANG_ as Tony's helmet was forced back down by Pepper's hand. She was fuming at this point and wrenched her hand from Tony's grip, snapping back to her feet. "You can take care of your own malfunctions, Mr. Stark. I suggest you look into _all _of them. Not just that robot." Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, fingers slowly uncurling and curling back. She didn't see Dummy come up from the other side of the car. Nor did she hear Tony's again-muffled warnings.

But she _did _feel the sudden blast of a dry-chemical extinguisher on her back, and in an instant, Pepper's nice, but modest suit and skirt combo was now very much covered in white powder. Her hair had been blown out of its tight ponytail, and if she'd been angry before, she was now positively livid.

Unfortunately for Tony, that only made him laugh. "It's because you're so hot, Pep. Don't take it personally." It was a good thing he was mostly protected by his armor, because if he hadn't been, he was pretty sure he would have gotten more than one of Pepper's well-practiced glares.

Through gritted teeth, she slowly said, "Get… over there… And turn that robot OFF, Tony."

Biting back his laughter, the man managed to nod and climb heavily to his feet, looking pretty lopsided. He had managed to get a leg, an arm, and a boot off before Dummy had gone crazy, but that was it. "You got it, Miss Potts." She didn't have to see his face to know he was still grinning. Tony gave a salute and once more peered over the hood of the car, planning his attack.

"Okay, here's what we do…" He slowly worked his hand out of the armor, leaving the piece on the floor. He'd done a lot to improve the armor, but dexterity was still lacking. That was definitely the next thing he was going to focus on. "I have to get to Dummy's circuitry, which is located near his base. Now, I'd explain how to deactivate him, but it'll be a lot easier if you just… stand in front of him while I sneak around. He likes you better than me anyway. Maybe if you ask nicely, he won't douse you again." Though, Tony didn't exactly sound convinced. "Okay? OKAY! GO!"

Whether or not Pepper complied, Tony scuttled around the car and did his best to skirt around the robot, but managed to trip over his own mis-matched feet. With a resounding _KA-CLAAANG!, _he hit the floor, skidded forward, and was greeted with an eager dry-chemical dousing. The man beneath the mask cursed loudly and scrambled to get upright, only making it to his hands and knees before Dummy tried to dart backwards, as if sensing what was going to happen.

It tried to get away, but to no avail. Tony lunged forward like an awkward cat pouncing, and just managed to get a hold of Dummy's base, nimble fingers deftly working to switch him off.

Once he had initial motor functions deactivated, he flipped the faceplate of his helmet up once again, only to be greeted by, surprisingly, Pepper's laughter. In fact, she was laughing so hard that she had to lean on the car to support herself. Hoping that he'd find himself in less trouble than he had been before diving to save them both, he turned towards Pepper and raised an eyebrow. "And what, Miss Potts, is so funny?"

It took Pepper a good moment or two to pull herself back together enough to answer. "You, Mr. Stark, are my hero." She then fell prey to her own amusement again, this time resting both arms on the hood of the car, her laughter bringing tears to her eyes.

A crooked smile crawled across Tony's face as he finished putting Dummy down for the time being and got to his feet. "Always glad to help." He pulled his helmet off and tossed it onto his desk. The rest of the armor would be a lot more difficult to get out of. "Now, do you want to be my hero and help me out of this? I'd like to get into something more… comfortable." There was that grin that so infuriated his assistant again.

"I have work to do, Mr. S-Stark," She was trying very hard not to laugh any more. Pepper took a deep breath, "So I'll leave you to your own devices." And she dusted off the front of her jacket, cleared her throat, and walked towards the door, somehow managing to look completely dignified.

Tony pouted as he watched her climb the stairs.

Once out of her boss' earshot, Pepper broke down again, letting herself fall into a seat on the couch, muffling her laughter with a throw pillow. The image of that man, half dressed in bright red and gold armor, half in a dark bodysuit (she couldn't help but steal a glance at his rear as he'd crawled after his own invention), throwing himself at one of his robots was probably one of the best things she'd ever seen.

And the fact she had the mind to pull out her video phone and record the whole thing?

Pepper was sure that even Tony Stark couldn't put a price on _that._


End file.
